A Ballinger Christmas Story

A couple of weeks ago my wife Jaslyn sent me a video of my daughter, Amaya, waving at the dump truck as it was pulling out of our alley. You could just see the driver waving back. It was a cute little exchange to say the least.

Jaslyn said, “Every week when she hears the horn she runs outside as fast as she can to wave to him.”

On December 19th another layer was added to the story. When Amaya ran out for her usual greeting she was surprised to find that the driver, Justin Torres, had gotten out of his truck to give her a Christmas present. Justin has run the Ballinger route for 20 years after being brought on for a shift that was originally only supposed to last a few days. Twenty years later he’s still here.

She has fallen in love with the gifts he gave her and in her little 4-year old mind he is now her best friend. She was so proud of her present, walking around the rest of the day telling her brothers and sister about her best friend, the Trash Man.

This is a showing of Christmas cheer that we so often forget about. We get obsessed with what we get, but forget about how a simple act of kindness can put a smile on someone’s face. Thank you Mr. Torres for your beautiful act of giving!